Expansion of double-fine zone eyed in Monroe County

Those speeding fines that are doubled on Interstate 80 between Delaware Water Gap and Stroud Township?

MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Those speeding fines that are doubled on Interstate 80 between Delaware Water Gap and Stroud Township?

They may be doubled even farther along the road.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, at the urging of the state police, is in the initial phases of a plan to extend the I-80 Safety Corridor from Stroud Township another 11 miles to Interstate 380.

The plan needs approval from the state before it can go into effect.

"There is a positive effect when the corridor is established," said Sgt. Martin Ritsick, special projects coordinator at the Swiftwater barracks of the state police. "People don't want to pay those fines."

In the safety corridor, fines for speeding are doubled. Only the fine is doubled, not the associated costs with a speeding ticket.

Fines range from about $40 to $100, depending on how fast a driver is going when caught.

The current safety corridor, established in 2002, runs from Stroud Township's mile marker 304 to Delaware Water Gap (Exit 310), a span of six miles.

Under the police proposal, it would run an extra 11 miles to Exit 293 in Jackson Township.

Ritsick said there won't be a reduction in the speed limit, which in that area is 55 mph in both the east and westbound lanes.

According to PennDOT figures, the current safety corridor had 259 crashes between 2007 and 2011 — about 43 crashes per mile over that time. The stretch of road eyed for the extension had 516 crashes over that time, almost 47 per mile.

The current corridor had 12 crashes involving major injuries or a fatality, while there were 32 in the proposed extension.

PennDOT spokesman Sean Brown said there is a four-step criteria the area must meet before it can get safety corridor designation:

It must meet a minimum crash rate, though he didn't say what that rate was. There must be safe areas to pull cars over. Police have said in the past that was one of the reasons they have trouble patrolling in that area — there aren't enough safe places to pull cars over. Adequate sign locations designating the area a safety corridor, which Brown said PennDOT will handle. A written commitment from the state police guaranteeing enforcement.

There is no time line, however, on how long it could take to institute the corridor extension, Brown said.